Ray muttered to himself, "Darn that Moon! Where the hell did he take off to? Hopefully he's at the place where the explosion was heard." as he rushed down the hallway. To his surprise, at the corner of his eye, he saw an unconscious Nikki lying on the ground, her adversary lying right next to her with a hole in her chest.

Ray rushed forward and carried Nikki in a princess carry, remarking, "Your safety is my priority. Got to hurry…" He then used his Enigma Ability to repel himself quickly towards the combat medical outpost.

There, he linked up with Keith and the other medical staff, where he requested for urgent assistance. Keith rushed over and checked Nikki's body. Subsequently, he shook his head and diagnosed, "She's been badly poisoned. Too much time has passed since she was poisoned, causing the poison to spread throughout her entire body. Though the poison is not a highly fatal one, any minute longer without medical assistance and she would have died. Leave her to me, Ray. I'll save her for sure."

Ray clenched his fists tightly as he reproached himself, "If only I had sent someone from Saint Cross to accompany her, this would have never happened…" Keith tried to comfort Ray while focusing on purging the poison out of Nikki, "It's not your fault really. She, as a Captain of the City Guard, knows the risks of her job and willingly accepted them."

Ray interjected suddenly, "No, it's not that! You don't understand why she enlisted with the City Guard in the first place! All this while, she wanted to simply get close to me by proving her strength, so that she can get my recognition and admiration. If only I had accepted her for who she is right at the beginning, she needn't put her own life at risk! I'm such a fool, I really am…"

Ray took a while to get his emotions under control before continuing, "There's only 1 thing left to do. To destroy Night Wing. Let me double check, Keith, are they right below us now?" Keith nodded, replying, "I sense 4 very strong mana signatures within the auditorium below us. Please don't be rash, Ray. We should wait for Frost before you…"

Keith was interrupted by a sudden outburst of mana from Ray. Even though Ray was still keeping his mana wrapped tightly around him, the sudden increase in mana output had caused the ground below Ray to crack. Keith had never seen Ray so mad before. Even Shaw, who was dozing off, suddenly woke up and turned to face Ray, a bead of sweat trickling down his forehead.

Within seconds, metallic sand gathered around Ray's body, covering his entire body completely with a black armour, including his face. His face was adorned with a shiny black mask with a V-shaped antennae on his forehead as well as a single green eye visor.

Shaw stammered, "S-Seriously? T-This is Ray's [Voltron Armour]! He only reveals it when he's 100% serious!" Without saying a further word, Ray smashed a hole in the ground below him with a punch and disappeared down to the floor below him.

Shadow was shocked to see the sudden arrival of a potential enemy he had no idea about. After all, he'd never seen someone dressed in that kind of armour before. The armoured figure before him was dressed in shiny black armour, with an equally shiny green visor on the face mask he wore.

Without warning, the mysterious figure disappeared and the next moment, Shadow was stupefied to see the figure impaling Skull's chest with an electricity-filled hand. Skull looked on horrified, as everything happened too fast for reality to sink in.

The figure muttered, "One life down. Wonder how many more to go?" before quickly retracting his hand out of Skull's chest. Skull's wound on his chest quickly regenerated, as one more sacrifice was utilised, leaving only one behind.

Moon quickly regained his composure and exclaimed, "Darn! It must be the Lightning Saint! We've got to go all out now if we want to live! [Titan Armour]!" as he wrapped himself with a huge amount of earth from the ground, forming the top half of a Titan's body constructed out of earth. The earth Titan swiftly threw a punch towards Ray, it's fist covered with several stone spikes.

Just before the fist, which was far larger than Ray, was about to hit him, Ray quickly turned around and directed his right palm towards the incoming fist. Ray quickly gathered an enormous amount of electricity in his right hand which he compressed into a ball about 2 times the size of his hand, muttering, "[80mm Lightning Particle Cannon]."

Ray quickly released a large stream of electricity that shredded right through the arm of the earth Titan, completely demolishing it. Ray quickly dashed forward and used his left fist to throw a highly focused [Lightning Breakdown Fist] on the lower chest of the earth Titan, smashing a huge hole through the thick chest of the earth Titan.

Subsequently, Ray followed up with a [Lightning Blade] in his right hand as he dashed through the hole, finding Moon within. Moon couldn't dodge the impending attack due to his surprise at how easily Ray tore through his [Titan Armour], leaving him bound to his earth Titan.

Ray quickly impaled Moon's chest with his [Lightning Blade] before retracting his hand quickly after ascertaining its fatality. The last sacrifice was used as Moon's wound started regenerating. Moon swiftly deactivated his [Titan Armour], causing rocks to collapse and fall onto Ray, who swiftly escaped from the collapsing structure.

Now, Shadow was nervous as all their sacrifices were used up in a blink of an eye, leaving him shell-shocked momentarily. Upon recovering, he immediately unleashed a rain of kunai marked with [Explosive Touch] towards Ray, causing a series of explosions upon contact with the walls as Ray dodged every single kunai.

Shadow decided to attempt his special assassination move once again, as he threw a single kunai marked with his Enigma Ability at Ray. As expected, Ray tilted his head to dodge the kunai and just as it flew past Ray slightly, Shadow teleported to his kunai instantly. He encased it with black flames from his right hand as he aimed a stab at Ray's right shoulder.

To his surprise, Ray simply disappeared in a blur just as Shadow was about to connect his attack. Shadow was taken aback by Ray's speed, only to discover that Ray had appeared near Skull. Skull was ready this time, as he quickly erected a wall made of shadows in front of him to separate him from Ray.

Skull cursed, "Eat this, you monster! [Shadow Torrent]!" as he launched a volley of shadow spikes at Ray. Ray simply dodged all the incoming attacks before bypassing Skull's [Shadow Wall] via its flank.

Skull was prepared as he swung a [Shadow Sword] in an overhead fashion towards Ray. Unfortunately, Ray's immense reflexes allowed him to step backwards, grab onto Skull's arm with the [Shadow Sword] with his left hand, before extending the [Lightning Blade] on his right hand to pierce right through Skull's head before he could dodge. This time, Skull simply collapsed onto the ground dead as blood flowed out from his forehead, the wound remaining open.

Moon instantly panicked and called Shadow, "Master, we should go now, it's too dangerous to stay here any longer!" Shadow shook out of his daze and replied, "It's indeed wise to retreat now to cut losses. Psycho would probably settle the rest. Let's go." as he begun to warp away.

Ray prepared a [Lightning Javelin] and hurled it towards Shadow. However, he teleported away in the nick of time. Coincidentally, Moon was within the line of flight of the spell, and before he could be warped away by Shadow's ability, he was struck by the spell through his chest, spilling blood.

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Ray grumbled as he deactivated his [Voltron Armour], "Darn, I only got at most 2 of them. Must find the others…" Due to exhaustion, he collapsed to his knees, panting. After all, in return for heavily enhanced electric power, speed, defence and even reflexes, [Voltron Armour] took a huge toll on Ray's mana reserves.

Ray sat down as he gasped for air, muttering, "Guess I'll have to rest up a little before searching for any remnants of Night Wing…"

Kai found himself within the same nightmare that has been plaguing him for seven years. Those flames, his mother, and that demon, their features were crystal clear and exactly the same as Kai had remembered from past nightmares. This time, however, Kai was in his body at present age instead of a little 7 year old boy he was then.

Before that fateful blow against his mother was delivered, Kai tried to stop it by throwing a [Lightning Bolt], but nothing came out of his hands. The demon pierced right through his mother's chest like all the nightmares he had previously, but the only difference now was that the demon hadn't carried his mother away, instead, it was walking towards him, grinning.

Kai muttered, "No…this shouldn't be happening. My nightmare should be over by now! What's going on?" The demon replied in a familiar voice, "This is my world. I can do whatever I want to break your soul. Even if it means letting you feel real pain."

The demon disappeared in a flash and the next moment, Kai felt a sharp pain in his chest as the demon had impaled him like how it'd impaled his mother. The demon laughed maniacally as it ignited its hand with fire, burning the insides of Kai as he could only scream in pain...

Back in reality, Psycho watched his 2 latest victims struggle with their own personal nightmares. They were under the effect of his Enigma Ability [Soul Breaker]. This allowed him to put them in a deep trance, where they would be forced to face their greatest fears, which can be manipulated further by him.

Once they've gone insane or have given up their will to struggle, Psycho could turn them into his mindless puppets that obey his every word. The only limitation of such an ability is that Psycho was rendered immobile during the entire process, though he could use this ability on more than 1 person at any one time.

Currently, Psycho is enjoying the pain-filled faces of the 2 young victims before him as he couldn't contain the excitement of obtaining 2 new puppets for his grand scheme…

The night was lit by a bright full moon. Adeline found herself in a very familiar forest. This was the same place that she had got lost in as a young child. She knew exactly what to expect next. True enough, she was surrounded by ravenous Sabrehounds, wolf-like creatures with 2 very long and sharp canines.

Realising that she was within her current body instead of her 4 year old one, Adeline readied herself for combat. However, when she tried to hurl a spell at the Sabrehounds, nothing transpired. Nonetheless, Adeline remained calm as her memory told her that help was arriving.

As expected, her father, the Sylph King Azir, burst into the scene, quickly decapitating one of the Sabrehounds with his scimitar. Adeline heaved a sigh of relief. From her memories, her father had killed all but one Sabrehound in this encounter.

That Sabrehound appeared to be the chief of all Sabrehounds, with its exquisite white fur and bigger build. Adeline witnessed the battle unfold as she watched her father kill beast after beast. Finally, only her father and the Chief Sabrehound remained.

The 2 pounced at each other, her father using Light magic to form a shield with his left hand while coating the scimitar in his right hand with light. The battle ensued as how Adeline had recalled, with both exchanging fierce blows with one another. The Chief Sabrehound repeatedly bashed against Azir's shield, who in turn was waiting for an opportunity to counterattack.

When that chance surfaced, Azir rammed his shield forward to stun his enemy before following up with a downward slash. The slash struck the left eye of the Chief Sabrehound, resulting in a wound across its left eye as it became blinded in that eye.

The Chief Sabrehound howled in pain as it backed off. Adeline smiled. She knew it was over, as the Chief Sabrehound would retreat after this blow. To her surprise, the Chief Sabrehound pounced forward with such force that it pinned her father down to the ground. It slashed against her father's shield relentlessly, eventually drawing blood as her father couldn't escape.

Finally, Azir's shield gave way completely and despite his last ditch effort to slay the monster with his scimitar aimed for its neck, the beast simply sliced off Azir's right hand with its paw before sinking its fangs into Azir's neck, killing him.

Adeline was too horrified to even think. This was not supposed to happen! The Chief Sabrehound approached her slowly and menacingly when it was done eating some flesh off Azir. It then spoke in a very familiar voice, "This is more than just a nightmare, this is going to be your reality soon enough. Didn't expect that your father's the Sylph King, but he's going down anyway. I think you'd like to join him, yes?"

In a flash, the large beast pounced on Adeline and started biting her, as though tearing a meal apart. Adeline's bloodcurdling screams pierced the silence of the night, but nobody was going to come and rescue her.

Kai was reaching his limit. The pain of having one's insides burned perpetually forever was taking a great toll on his mind, perhaps even greater than the toll on his body. Is this truly inescapable? Is he simply meant to be burnt in hell like this?

No, Kai shook his head resolutely. The first step in getting out of this living hell is believing that there's a way out, and holding firmly onto that belief. If he'd resigned to his fate, he would face the certainty of doom. Kai began to calm himself down as he got accustomed to the pain. He started racking his brain furiously for an explanation to his current predicament. The influence of an illusion technique was most likely, he reasoned.

Illusions target the cerebral cortex of the brain, disabling the proper function of one's 5 senses and causing them to function in the way pre-determined by the caster of the illusion. There were quite a couple of ways to overcome an illusion, but sadly, Kai didn't pay enough attention to combat magic class when Mr Heinrich was explaining illusions. He never liked psychological combat after all.

However, there was something that he wanted to try out given his predicament. If illusions affected the cerebral cortex, which also governs imagination, if he had a very good imagination, perhaps he can regain control over his dysfunctional cerebral cortex?

Kai first attempted to imagine that he had regeneration abilities like Adeline, as he fought to retaliate against the burning sensation he felt in his chest. After some intense mental strain, Kai slowly began to pull the demon's hand out of his chest, much to the demon's surprise.

The demon yelped, "What's going on? This is my world!" Kai replied calmly as the wound on his chest disappeared swiftly, "No, this is my mind, so it's my world. Be gone with the light!"

The demon shouted, "I refuse!" as it struggled against the blast of light that had descended from the sky upon Kai's command. Kai exclaimed, "The power of my imagination comes from my emotions. Using my family is the greatest mistake you could ever make, for my family is what keeps me going no matter what! My mother may be physically gone, but her love for me has never left its place in my heart! Don't underestimate the power of love!"

The light intensified further till the demon's struggles were futile as it wailed in defeat. Upon the destruction of his inner demon, Kai's world started spinning and he was brought back to reality.

Kai regained his consciousness, only to find Adeline still trapped in her illusion as her face gave a highly distressed expression with beads of sweat trickling down her forehead. With his Luminos, Kai could see foreign traces of mana on Adeline and immediately used his Enigma Ability to remove them, dispelling the illusion she was under.

Upon her release, Adeline's eyes flickered open as she collapsed to her knees, still exhausted from her ordeal. Kai then turned to face Psycho with anger in his eyes. However, as much as he wanted to confront the villain, he knew that in his current weakened state, he was no match for his adversary.

Psycho appeared unperturbed from having his illusion dispelled, clapping as he remarked, "Not bad, not bad. Not many people have been able to dispel my illusion with such an unorthodox method, you have a strong mind indeed! Coupled with that Luminos Ability of yours, you show great promise! How would you like to join me, as future leaders of this world?"

Kai angrily retorted, "What nonsense are you spouting? First, you threaten us with your brainwashing and now you're extending your hand in friendship? Forget it, I'll never join you guys from Night Wing!"

Psycho replied calmly, "Ah, you're sorely mistaken. My allegiance is with another group. We intend to bring this world to its true state as our Master desires, where there are no such thing as rulers, and everybody lives for themselves alone! I won't force you to join now, but when you see the inevitable fate of this world, I hope you pick the right side!"

Just as he finished his sentence, Psycho noticed the mark on his left hand glowing. He said, "May we meet again, Kai of Zion Academy…" as he warped away after pouring mana into the mark Shadow imprinted on his left hand.

Kai shouted, "Hold on, you scumbag!" but Psycho was long gone. Succumbing to his fatigue, Kai slumped onto the ground, his world slowly fading black as he lost consciousness gradually.